Americas Executive Committee

Chris Anderton is currently a staff scientist at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), which is located on the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) campus. Chris received his BS in chemistry at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in 2005. He attained his PhD in chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 2011, under Mary L. Kraft, where his graduate work focused on using secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS and NanoSIMS) in conjunction with atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy for multi-technique correlative analysis of supported lipid membranes. Afterward, he received a US National Research Council Postdoctoral Associateship to work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology under Anne L. Plant, where he studied how eukaryotic cells respond to changes in the physicochemical properties of their extracellular environment, using force microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, and ToF-SIMS. In 2013, he joined the Mass Spectrometry Group at EMSL, where he is now leading the effort in developing new imaging mass spectrometry instrumentation and capabilities to elucidate chemical interactions occurring within microbial communities, soils, and the rhizosphere. In his free time, Chris loves to travel and explore the great outdoors.

Alison Scott is an assistant professor in the Department of Microbial Pathogenesis at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in Baltimore, Maryland, adjunct in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and is a guest researcher at the Maastricht MultiModal Molecular Imaging Institute in the Netherlands. Alison completed her BS in biochemistry at Eastern Michigan University and earned her PhD in Molecular Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Maryland Baltimore. She has a diverse training background including working in CNS pharmacology at Pfizer Global Research & Development, adjuvant development at the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and Biological Sciences, and vaccine assessment at Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation. Her recent work has largely focused on applying imaging modalities, including imaging mass spectrometry, to understand host-pathogen interaction to instruct new therapeutic approaches to infection and immunity. Additionally, she has developed methods for detection of complex microbial glycolipids from infected tissues, expanding the possibilities for studies of Gram-negative infections and joining her two favorite topics: endotoxin structure and imaging mass spectrometry. Alison also serves as the Treasurer on the International Endotoxin and Innate Immunity Society Board.

Peggi Angel is currently Assistant Professor at Medical University of South Carolina, where she works on technology advancements in MALDI IMS and application to cardiovascular disease and cancer. Peggi attended graduate school at the University of Georgia’s Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, graduating with a PhD in 2007. Her graduate research was on quantitative proteomics and N-linked glycoproteomics in mammalian development. After a postdoctoral study at Emory University focused on membrane proteomics of fetal alcohol syndrome, she won a competitive Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Systems-based Consortium for Organ Design and Engineering. With the Fellowship, she worked at Vanderbilt University on methods using MALDI IMS for developmental biology and participated in establishing the National Research Resource in Imaging Mass Spectrometry. Peggi has developed IMS methods for increasing sensitivity of protein detection from tissues, analysis and identification of lipids in negative mode at high spatial resolution, metabolomics on tissue and cell culture, targeted protein detection in tissues, proteomics of thin tissue sections, and on-tissue chemistries.

Fernando “Ralph” Tobias is a research assistant professor at Northwestern University and the MS director at the Integrated Molecular Structural Research Center (IMSERC). Ralph completed his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Illinois Chicago with Prof. Stephanie M. Cologna where his graduate work focused on mass spectrometry imaging and lipidomics studies in the mouse model of Niemann-Pick Type C disease and neurodegenerative diseases. He went to do a postdoctoral training at The Ohio State University with Prof. Amanda B. Hummon, where he expanded his lipidomics and mass spectrometry imaging expertise in conducting colorectal cancer-related studies. At IMSERC, he is leading the effort to support and expand the mass spectrometry needs and capabilities, including mass spectrometry imaging, lipidomics, and metabolomics, within the Northwestern University community and beyond. In his free time, Ralph enjoys bouldering, biking, and travelling to new cities.

Elizabeth Neumann is an assistant professor in the chemistry department at UC Davis. Her research focuses on understanding the molecular and cellular architecture behind complex human disorders, such as renal cell carcinoma, spina bifida, and Alzheimer’s Disease. This highly interdisciplinary research involves developing analytical tools and multimodal imaging methods for understanding complex biological phenomena. She has a passion for mentorship, outreach, and board games. Before joining UC Davis, she was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and an NSF graduate fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois.

Dr. Bingming Chen is an associate principal scientist at Merck. She is part of the ADME group of the preclinical development department. She is investigating the tissue distribution of therapeutic agents in preclinical species through the application of mass spectrometry imaging techniques. Prior to Merck, she graduated from Dr. Lingjun Li’s lab at University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017 with a doctoral degree in pharmaceutical sciences. She also got her Bachelor’s degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison and recently finished her Master of Business Administration degree at the Gies College of Business – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She has published 29 peer-reviewed articles in the areas of mass spectrometry imaging, quantitative glycomics and biomolecule characterization.

Lisa Cazares* (NIAID/NIH) is a Project Officer in the Drug Development Section of the Office of Biodefense, Research Resources and Translational Research (OBRRTR) within the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Cazares is an expert in pathogen and disease induced changes to the proteome and metabolome in plasma and tissues and has over 20 years of experience in the use of multiomic translational technologies, for disease diagnosis and therapeutic target discovery. *Dr. Cazares is serving in her personal capacity.

Jillian Johnson is a Principal Scientist in the Cellular Systems Imaging Group in Pre-Clinical Sciences at GSK. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the guidance of Drs. Lingjun Li and W. John Kao. Her current research focuses on using mass spectrometry imaging to deliver drug quantitation in tissues and understanding the drug efficacy/pharmacodynamics at the site of action for molecules in pre-clinical development. Jillian joined GSK in 2022, after spending 3 years as a Mass Spectrometry Researcher in Analytical Sciences at ExxonMobil, specializing in mass spectrometry characterization of algae and cellulosic biomass and biofuels. She has contributed to significantly to her field, publishing more than 15 peer-reviewed articles across topics including: mass spectrometry imaging, biofuels characterization, metabolomics, and proteomics and maintains a passion for integrating mass spectrometry data with modeling efforts to drive business decisions in industry. 

Boone Prentice is Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Florida. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from Longwood University (Farmville, VA), and completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN) under the mentorship of Prof. Scott McLuckey studying gas-phase ion/ion reactions and ion trap instrumentation. He then completed his postdoctoral work in the Department of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) as an NIH NRSA fellow under the guidance of Prof. Richard Caprioli before joining the faculty at UF in 2018. His research group focuses on merging instrumentation and gas-phase ion chemistry with imaging mass spectrometry to better understand the molecular pathology of infectious disease, diabetes, neurodegeneration, and addiction. His research has been recognized by the Young Investigator Award from Eli Lilly and Company in 2022, a JDRF Innovation Award in 2023, and an NSF CAREER award in 2024, and his research has been highlighted in emerging investigator feature articles in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (2023), Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (2023), Journal of Mass Spectrometry (2024), and the International Journal of Mass Spectrometry (2024).

Madeline E. Colley, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University in the Mass Spectrometry Research Center and is mentored by Jeffrey Spraggins and Richard Caprioli. She specializes in mass spectrometry and MALDI instrumentation and development and focuses on highly multiplexed fragmentation with ion mobility, protein imaging with high spectral resolution FT-ICRs and designs custom laser systems for tissue imaging. In addition, she performs quantitative lipidomics and metabolomics by LC-MS/MS across a variety of platforms. Maddie received her Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Texas at San Antonio where she worked on a multi-bounce time-of-flight mass spectrometer for space science and engineering, developed imaging mass spectrometry methods for dental proteins, and focused on computational chemistry methods including DFT and CCSD. She is a self-taught web developer fluent in PHP, SQL, and a variety of other languages and in her free time, she enjoys flying helicopters and exploring state parks.